To call yourself a born-again Christian (Believer, Follower of Jesus) there are some things that you must believe (trust in) in order to have true salvation. Jesus needs to be Lord of your life as well as your Savior. This is not either/or, he cannot be one without the other.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
1.) Jesus as Lord of your life. What exactly does it mean for Jesus to be Lord of your life? It means He is your master and you are his servant. It means he comes first in your life and is in control and you submit to his will. It means if/when he says “Go here” or “Do this” you go and you do it. Why is this so hard to admit and follow? Because let’s face it, we like to be in control, we like to be our own bosses, masters of our own lives. In short, this is called pride and it always gets in the way and hinders our relationship with Jesus. Accepting Jesus as LORD is no small task as our selfish nature often takes the lead and we tend to not fully submit to him, trust me, I have struggled with this my whole life. I am only learning recently that God’s ways are always better than my own, he knows what is best for me, even if I never see it.
2.) Jesus as your Savior. Jesus is Savior because he died for your sins and the sins of the whole world and was raised again three days later. Why did Jesus do that? The short answer is he took the punishment for sin that was meant for you and for me. We live in a broken world because of sin and the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). To understand better, aka the long answer, we have to go back to…..well, the beginning of creation.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) and everything in it, including Adam and Eve whom he created in his image. After he created everything God said that it was Very Good. Everything was very good and Adam and Eve lived in the prefect Garden of Eden with God and all was well. Until…until Satan tempted and deceived Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God commanded them not to eat from, but their pride caused them to disobey and eat the fruit. This was a direct violation of God’s command to them and brought sin into the world which separates us from God. Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden for their transgression and we have been living in the broken world separated from God ever since.
However, God didn’t want this to be permanent, he wanted to restore the relationship with us, his creation. So, for reasons I will never fully understand, Jesus came to earth, fully God and fully man, then willingly sacrificed himself on the cross to take the punishment of sin. He did more than just take the punishment for sin, he took the sins of the world upon himself, in essence he became sin, and then suffered God’s wrath against sin and died. After three days God raised him from the dead because the debt for sin was paid “in full” and anyone who believes will be saved and will have a restored relationship with God that will continue for eternity in heaven.
This salvation is God’s FREE gift to us, we can NOT earn it, nor do we deserve it. We are all sinners and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Don’t believe me, just watch the news for a few minutes or look around in your town or city. The world is an unpleasant, sinful place full of destruction and evil. But God wants us to turn from our sinful ways and He wants a relationship with us because he LOVES us. This is only possible through his Mercy and Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life.
This grace, this free gift that God offers, demands a response. One response, which I hope you don’t choose, is to reject God’s gift and live an eternity separated from Him in hell. The truth is, God doesn’t send anyone to hell, they choose it over a relationship with Him. The other response, the one I HOPE you choose, is to accept this free gift of salvation and repent from your sinful ways and live for Jesus. Repent, not to earn your way into heaven, as that is Impossible, but to obey his commands because you love him and are grateful for the undeserved gift of salvation and that could never be earned.
